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History · Little Sioux

Little Sioux’s post office opened in 1856, and 58% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Murray General Merchandise Store.

1856first post office
1on the National Register
58%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Jared Winkler · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Little Sioux began

When was Little Sioux founded?

1856

The Little Sioux post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Fontainbleau (1856) and Fontainblue (1857), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

2020 census: 166170 years
Founding year: the first Little Sioux post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Little Sioux’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Little Sioux are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Little Sioux’s homes were built before 1938.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Little Sioux.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Little Sioux’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Little Sioux’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story so far

Little Sioux, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Little Sioux yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Little Sioux is a city in Harrison County, Iowa, United States. The population was 166 at the time of the 2020 census. The city is most known for Little Sioux Scout Ranch of the Boy Scouts of America.

Its first post office opened in 1856. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 170 to 166 (-2%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices and places now gone

Little Sioux’s post office has been open since 1856. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Fontainbleau
1856–1856
Little Sioux
1856–today
Fontainblue
1857–1857
18501940today
Gone or out of use
Little Sioux Post Officepost office

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Timeline

Little Sioux, 1856 to 1857

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1856Post officeThe Fontainbleau post office opens
  3. 1856Post officeThe Fontainbleau post office closes
  4. 1856Post officeThe Little Sioux post office opens
  5. 1857Post officeThe Fontainblue post office opens
  6. 1857Post officeThe Fontainblue post office closes
By decade

Little Sioux, decade by decade

Today2 recent
Little Sioux, IA2018Little Sioux, IAIAMap-doton-LittleSioux2004IAMap-doton-LittleSioux
On the National Register

1 historic place in Little Sioux

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1998
Murray General Merchandise Store
Murray General Merchandise Store
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Late Victorian1
Italianate1
False Front Commercial1
All 1 listings
Murray General Merchandise StoreBuilding · listed 1998

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Questions about Little Sioux’s history

What year was Little Sioux founded?

The Little Sioux post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Little Sioux?

One place: the Murray General Merchandise Store (listed 1998).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (2), the National Register of Historic Places (1), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.